Prayer Time
After one month in Riyadh, all of the non-Muslim teachers I worked with knew the timing of each of the five daily prayers, and many even knew the names. Most of these guys hadn’t set foot in an Arab country before coming here, hadn’t studied Islam in school, and weren’t particularly interested in religious issues. But in Saudi, businesses have to shut their doors during all prayer times, so Muslims and non-Muslims alike must take them into account as they plan their day.
The first prayer of the day is Fajr, which I had previously known only as “the prayer that woke me up in the middle of the night every night when I was in Turkey.” The Fajr call is made when the first light can be seen on the horizon—not dawn, just the moment when the sky begins to lighten the tiniest little bit. The actual prayer can legally be put off until just before sunrise, but the Muslims I know usually do it when it is called.
The next prayer, Dhuhr, doesn’t come until true, solar noon—when the sun is at its highest point in the sky. This is a long one, about thirty minutes, so it greatly complicates a non-Muslim’s lunch hour. Adding to the complexity is the fact that every business decides for itself when to close and open for the prayers. So in practice, Dhuhr closings are staggered enough that the entire period of 12 to 1 pm is an unreliable time to try and get anything done.
In Riyadh, the third prayer, `Asr, is called when an object’s shadow is as long as the object is tall—that is, when the sun is exactly halfway between noon and sunset. Currently, this is about 2:50. `Asr is theoretically a shorter prayer than Dhuhr, but the aforementioned staggering means that it is still difficult to go somewhere for a cup of tea until about 3:30.
After a week or two, I learned that some businesses are more flexible than others about the closing rules. A sizeable minority will lower their shades and lock the doors but allow those already inside to remain. Department stores, for example, all do this. And some places—like the Texas Chicken* just off the KSU campus—will lock the doors for Saudis but ignore the whole thing altogether if someone cool and obviously non-Muslim (like me) comes to the door.
The fourth prayer is Maghrib, and it is called at sunset. The fifth prayer, `Isha’a, is the inverse of Fajr, being called when the last light of the sun disappears from the sky. These two are close enough (especially considering the staggering rule) that if one is considering an evening excursion such as dinner or errands, it is usually better to just wait until 7:30 pm or so. At the Pakistani curry joint in my first neighborhood, if you tried to get takeout between the two evening prayers there was a good chance you would walk home with odds and ends of whatever the cook had too much of.
Since the prayers are all determined by the position of the sun, they change slightly every day. Before modern timekeeping technology became widespread, most people knew that it was time to pray because they heard someone singing from a minaret. Now there are free iPhone apps and specially designed satellite clocks that combine atomic clock data with preprogrammed astronomical tables. (The singing, however, goes on. And given that there is a mosque about every three blocks in Riyadh, there is literally nowhere one can be and not hear the call.)
I’ve downloaded a prayer time app, but for the most part I still generally only discover that that it is time to pray when I go to a store or restaurant and find it closed. And given that prayer time in Riyadh takes up at least three of the eight hours between noon and 8 pm, this happens with alarming frequency. It used to annoy me, but a couple of weeks ago I simply gave up and accepted that my life here would involve a certain amount of sitting around and waiting. So now I bring a book.
* Church’s Chicken has franchises all over the world. Outside of America, however, they are called “Texas Chicken.” I have never seen an explanation for this, but I assume that they realized early on that if they kept the original name, they would lose the business of people who would associate the name with the house of Christian worship rather than with George W. Church, who founded the company.
